Among other fundamental maxims his father had given him the following:
You must _make_ your own life as you would any other work of art. The
life of a man of intellect should be of his own designing. Herein lies
the only true superiority.
Again: Never, let it cost what it may, lose the mastery over yourself
even in the most intoxicating rapture of the senses. _Habere non haberi_
is the rule from which the man of intellect should never swerve.
And again--Regret is the idle pastime of an unoccupied mind. The best
method, therefore, to avoid regret is to keep the mind constantly
occupied with new fancies, fresh sensations.
Unfortunately, however, these _voluntary_ axioms, which from their
ambiguity might just as easily be interpreted as lofty moral rules, fell
upon an _involuntary_ nature; that is to say, one in which the will
power was extremely feeble.
Another seed sown by the paternal hand had borne evil fruit in Andrea's
spirit--the seed of sophistry. Sophistry, said this imprudent teacher,
is at the bottom of all human pleasure or pain. Therefore, quicken and
multiply your sophisms and you quicken and multiply your own pleasure or
your own pain. It is possible that the whole science of life consists in
obscuring the truth. The word is a very profound matter in which
inexhaustible treasure is concealed for the man who knows how to use it.
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